I used to work in direct sales (in Financial Services). One of the last managerial abuses I was subject to before telling them I had started my own firm was a reminder of 10-3-1. That is, ten appointments equals three opportunities, equals one sale.

It went like this-
An estate planning attorney and I were doing some free educational seminars about guardianship (what happens to your kids if you die or are in a coma). It was part of our joint effort to reach out directly to the people who were most likely to become our clients, and then provide useful information to them.
There were maybe 16 moms at the seminar we had just done. We got two appointments right away.
Then, there I was, in a sales meeting, being asked to accont for my activity that week. I told a quick story about the seminar, that we had two appointments, and that we had several more moms who were interested.
But, no- I was reminded- 10-3-1… Two appointments is hardly anything worth talking about. How many dials did I make? How many doors did I knock on? How many people did I harass?
I quit, about a week later.

Since then, a few interesting things have happened:

• The attorney became my first consulting client (with a long-term engagement as her Creative Director).
• The attorney closed on both appointments.
• I read this article on Seth Godin’s blog.

Because marketers were raised on the scale of mass—TV, radio, newspapers—they have a churn and burn mentality…
Scalejacking inevitably tarnishes most communities, because individuals (people) hate being treated like numbers just standing by to be filtered.

Sales people, especially Financial sales people, weren’t raised on the scale of mass, but they were raised on churn and burn. 10-3-1. The sales funnel. Conversion rates. I once heard (in a motivational talk) that our job was simply, “processing names.”

No wonder sales people have such a bad reputation.

And it doesn’t require the internet to take care of a small dedicated community. That helps, of course it helps. But the good sales people (I’ve met a few) have been building and taking care of communities forever. Our little experiment with conversion rates at a low-tech, in-person seminar is proof of that. (Results have been repeated, by the way.)

When I first got into what became my last sales job, I took a personality test to see if I would be successful. The test said my biggest weakness was that I cared too much about clients.
So, in sales world…
Caring too much about clients = weakness.

If you’ve spent any time around sales people (especially sales managers) or marketing people, do everything you can to detox yourself from that kind of churn-n-burn, numbers-game poison. If you have been trying to run a business based on love, but you keep hearing some expert somewhere telling you about sales funnels and conversion rates, try to block them out.

(And yes… Sales conversion rates and click-through and numbers are all important. I’m just saying- the funnel is a tool, not the whole enterprise. The enterprise is love. The enterprise is value.)

And one last point (do I make too many in one post?)…
That awful feeling you get in your stomach when you start treating people like numbers… there’s a reason for that. Pay attention to it.